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Part of the American
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Rachel Craighead Caldwell 1742 ~ 1825
The history of North Carolina is in many ways identified with
the life of the Reverend David Caldwell and his wife Rachel
Caldwell. Mrs. Caldwell was the third daughter of the Reverend
Alexander Craighead, the pastor of what was known as the Sugar
Creek congregation, and in her early life she had a share in
many of the trials and hardships of the Indian War; the attacks
of the savages being frequent and murderous, and her home being
quite an exposed station. She often said in describing these
attacks that as the family would escape out one door the Indians
would come in at another. When defeat left the Virginia frontier
at the mercy of the savages, Mr. Craighead fled with some of his
people, and crossing the Blue Ridge passed to the more quiet
regions of Carolina, where he remained till the close of his
life. Rachel married Dr. Caldwell in 1776. He was called the
Father of Education in North Carolina, because his celebrated
classical school was for a long time the only one of note in the
state, and so great was the influence of Mrs. Caldwell in his
school that it gave currency to the saying throughout the
country, "Doctor Caldwell makes the scholars and Mrs. Caldwell
makes the preachers."
Doctor Caldwell's pronounced preaching for freedom, however,
made him an object of especial enmity to the British and Tories,
and finally a reward of two hundred pounds was offered for his
apprehension. This necessitated his going into hiding and
leaving Mrs. Caldwell alone and unprotected during those days
when every part of the country was subject to all manner of
spoliation and outrage. On the eleventh of March the British
army was dispatched to the Caldwell plantation and camped there,
the officers taking possession of the house. They at first
announced themselves as Americans and asked to see the mistress.
A servant had ascertained, by standing on the fence and seeing
the redcoats at a distance, that they were part of the army of
Cornwallis and quickly communicated her discovery to her
employer. Excusing herself by saying that she must attend to her
child, Mrs. Caldwell returned to the house and immediately gave
warning to two of her neighbors who happened to be there so that
they escaped through another door and concealed themselves. She
then returned to the gate and accused the British soldiers of
masquerading as patriots. They openly demanded use of the
dwelling for a day or two and immediately took possession,
evicting Mrs. Caldwell, who with her children retired to the
smokehouse and passed a day with no other food than a few dried
peaches and apples. A physician then interfered and procured for
her a bed, some provisions and a few cooking utensils. The
family remained in the smokehouse two days and nights being in
the meantime frequently insulted by profane and brutal language.
To a young officer, who came to the door for the purpose of
taunting the helpless mother, by ridiculing her countrymen, whom
he termed rebels and cowards, Mrs. Caldwell replied, "Wait and
see what the Lord will do for us." "If He intends to do
anything;" roughly answered the officer, "it is time He had
begun."
In replying to Mrs. Caldwell's application to one of the
soldiers for protection, she was told that she could expect no
favors, as the women were regarded as great rebels as the men.
After remaining two days the army took their departure from the
plantation, on which they had destroyed everything. Before
leaving the officer in command gave orders that Doctor
Caldwell's library and papers should be burned. A fire was
kindled in the large oven in the yard and Mrs. Caldwell was
obliged to look on while books, which could not at that time be
replaced, and valuable manuscripts, which had cost the study and
labor of years were carried out by the soldiers, armful after
armful, and ruthlessly committed to the flames.
The persecution of Doctor Caldwell continued while the British
occupied that portion of the state. He was hunted as a felon and
the merest pretenses were used to tear him from his
hiding-places. Often he escaped captivity or death by what
seemed a miracle. At one time when he had ventured home on a
stolen visit the house was suddenly surrounded by men, who
seized him before he could escape, intending to carry him to
their British camp. One or two were left to guard him while the
others searched the house for articles of any value. When they
were nearly ready to depart Mrs. Caldwell came forward, and with
the promptitude and presence of mind which women frequently
display in sudden emergencies, stepped behind Doctor Caldwell
and leaning over his shoulder, whispered to him as though
intending the question for his ear alone, she asked if it were
not time for Gillespie and his men to be there. One of the
soldiers who stood nearest caught the words and with evident
alarm demanded what men were meant. Mrs. Caldwell replied
ingenuously that she was merely speaking to her husband. In a
moment all was confusion; the whole party was panic-stricken!
Exclamations and hurried questions followed in the consternation
produced by this woman's simple manoeuvre, and the Ivories fled
precipitately, leaving their prisoner and their plunder. The
name Gillespie was a terror to the Loyalists, and this party
never doubted that he was on their trail.
Sometime in the fall of 1780 a stranger appeared before Mrs.
Caldwell's door, faint and worn, asking for supper and lodging
for the night. He was bearing dispatches for General Greene and
he had imagined that he would be free from danger under the roof
of a minister of the Gospel. Mrs. Caldwell longed to offer him
shelter, but she was constrained to explain that her husband was
an object of peculiar hatred to the Tories and she could not
tell the day or hour when an attack might be expected. She said
he should have something to eat immediately but advised him to
seek some safer place of shelter for the night. Before she
finished preparing his meal voices were heard without, with the
cries of "Surround the house," and the dwelling was presently
assailed by a body of Tories. With admirable calmness Mrs.
Caldwell told the stranger to follow her and led him out by an
opposite door. A large locust tree stood close by and the night
was so dark that no object could be discerned amid its
clustering foliage. She urged the man to climb the tree and
conceal himself till the intruders should be absorbed in
plundering her house. He could then descend on the other side
and trust to the darkness for his safety. The house was
pillaged, as she expected, and the man bearing the message so
important to his country escaped, to remember with gratitude the
woman whose prudence had saved him while undergoing the loss of
her own property.
Another little incident, not without humor, illustrates how a
woman's intrepidity was sometimes successful in disbanding
marauders. Among such articles as the housewife so prizes, Mrs.
Caldwell had an elegant tablecloth, which she valued as the gift
of her mother. While the Tories on one occasion were in her
house gathering plunder, one of them broke open the chest of
drawers which contained it and tore out the tablecloth. Mrs.
Caldwell seized and held it fast, determined not to give up her
treasure. When she found that her rapacious enemy would soon
succeed in wresting it from her unless she could make use of
something more than muscular force to prevent him, she turned to
the other men of the party and appealed to them with all a
woman's eloquence, asking if some of them had not wives or
daughters for whose sake they would interfere. A small man who
stood at the distance of a few feet presently stepped up and
with tears in his eyes said that he had a wife, and a fine
little woman she was too, and that he would not allow any
rudeness to be practiced toward Mrs. Caldwell. His interference
compelled the depredator to restore the valued article, and then
the tide of opinion turned, and the British soldiers cheered
lustily for courageous Rachel Caldwell. After the war Doctor
Caldwell resumed his labors as teacher and preacher. He died in
the summer of 1824, in the one hundredth year of his age. The
wife who had accompanied him in all the vicissitudes of his long
life followed him to the grave at the age of eighty-eight. All
who knew Rachel Caldwell regarded her as a woman of remarkable
character and interest and she is remembered throughout her
state with high respect.
Women of
America
Source: The Part Taken by Women in
American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle
Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.
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